Hiroshima Bay cycling(G-2)⭐⭐⭐⭐’22.3rd,Sep

2022年9月6日2023年1月30日

This route is in Area-G “Chugoku". See Area-G map/See Japan map

Actual cycling distance is 135km. More info in Strava

Sight & Entertainment ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Food & Drinks ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Easiness ⭐⭐⭐ *Up to distance

Road condition ⭐⭐

Safety *up to Iwakuni ⭐⭐⭐/ From Iwakuni ⭐⭐

Again I brought my bike to my Bz trip in Yamaguchi prefecture. My original plan was to go to west Yamaguchi or to go to east Yamaguchi and Hiroshima as plan-B. The weekly weather forecast had always told me weekend would be rainy in whole area of Yamaguchi but I placed my last glimmer of hope on the forecast change, then one day before my cycling day, I decided to go east to minimize the chance of rain.

I departed from the hotel at Tokuyama station at 7:00AM. It was cloudy but was comfortable thanks to the cloud. It was after 20km cycling when the sea view appeared for the first time(pic.2). Till I came close to Iwakuni city, the road basically ran along the coast. Though the road width for bike was narrow and sometimes it was rough, I felt safe since few cars were running.

But when I reached Iwakuni city, the road became busy(pic.4) so I often should ride on a pedestrian way. I reached wharf to Miyajima island around noon. In Miyajima, there is a well known Itsukushima shrine, one of the three major Japanese views, where we can reach by ferries commuting every 15min (pic.5,6). Pls note extra fee(+\100-/one way) is required to get on board with a bike.

　From the wharf in Miyajima to the shrine, there are many restaurants and souvenir shops for 1km. Even after passing the first gate of shrine(pic.7), I could walk my bike up to the ticket office(pic8~10). Unfortunately the famous floating gate was under repairing(pic.9), but the shrine was worth visiting.

13. Itsukushima shrine view from opposite shore

It was already around 1:00PM, so I searched a restaurant. The conger eel and oyster dishes seemed popular here but the conger eel seemed too expensive(around \3,000- for one bowl whereas it was below \2,000- in Chiba, Futtsu, pls refer to my C-6 article), so I ordered oyster dish at \1,500- (pic.14). Hiroshima prefecture, including Miyajima is famous for oyster production in Japan. Honestly I prefer the oysters taken in Tohoku area(Area-B in my map) but the taste of this bowl had enough good with rich flavor of oyster, rich flavor of iron.

Indeed no other tourists carried bicycles and I also noticed that the bicycle was useless in Miyajima unless I stayed there longer and took a stroll. I went back to main land at 1:30PM. Only 20km were left toward Hiroshima city, so I decided to book a hotel in Kure city, 30km away from Hiroshima.

The road from the wharf to Hiroshima was still in bad condition and unsafe, similar to Tokyo area. I reached Hiroshima peace memorial park at 2:30PM. It was my second visit there but again I felt intensely sad.

I needed a break with special juice and found a tiny shop who served lemonade(pic.18). Hiroshima is well known production area of lemon, so it was a good choice for me. But due to searching such shop, I wasted time and it got dark outside at 3:30PM.

I hurried to Kure city but the road condition was still not good and I felt tired by over 120km cycling, so I struggled for speed-up. Then just 5km to the goal, it started rain. I took a shelter for a while but it didn’t seem to stop, so I finally rode getting drenched. When I reached my hotel, it stopped…

I chose Okonomiyaki(Japanese pizza. pic.19) for my dinner. Hiroshima’s Okonomiyaki is as famous as that of Osaka. The difference is that Hiroshima’s has noodle inside. I visited “Tokki“, near my hotel to eat that. The size of pizza(Okonomiyaki) was too big to eat completely but its taste was very nice and fit for a cool beer. Now Day1 finished. Next day, I’ll ride to Onomichi then go back home.

BTW, Yamaguchi prefecture, my starting point is well known Japanese sake and fresh fish area. The day before my starting, I enjoyed them at Tokuyama city’s nice restaurant, “Gomaya" with my Bz colleagues. The restaurant serves live squid sashimi as well as seasonal fresh fishes. This time we could eat read sea bream. In winter season, pufferfish will be served in this area, which is too famous to write here. And Yamaguchi has many famous Japanese sake, like “Dassai", “Gangi". This time I enjoyed “Gokyo", too. Those good sakes are must-try.